A Penny Dreadful
When the night wind howls in the chimney cowls, and the bat in the moonlight flies,
And inky clouds, like funeral shrouds, sail over the midnight skies
When the footpads quail at the night-bird’s wail, and black dogs bay at the moon,
Then is the spectres’ holiday – then is the ghosts’ high-noon!
William Schwenck Gilbert (Sir Roderic’s Song)
October’s mood & wolf dog howls harmonize with the global winds of change (…and the beautiful music of Arjuna)
Fortunately history shows us that the phoenix rises from the flames & that through chaos there emerges some peace. I try to remember this as I watch the wars rage on everywhere around me. My friend still battling her personal war with cancer at home. Environmentalists & activists battle hunters & farmers in the war on wolves in this country & seems scattered & hopeless. Large scale protests in major cities across the globe at war with their own countries. Pockets of smaller protests popping up everywhere across the US in solidarity of New York’s Occupy Wall Street that started September 17th. The world is a ghastly battleground of corruption & greed, yet so much uncelebrated beauty & compassion is taking center stage as we start on a new collective path.
On October 1st we went to the starting day of the Occupation of Los Angeles city hall in downtown LA & it was a beautiful sight to see everyone rising up against a common enemy. Suddenly we were a part of something big in spite of living so far off the beaten path. A movement was spreading across the states like wildfire. Each day a new city popped up on the Occupy Together map. The internet was now a way to spread the news the press wouldn’t print.
It is nice to see people relearning the lost art of a good protest & doing something they believe in no matter how inconvenient it may be. One of my favorites was Julia Butterfly Hill who lived in a giant redwood tree named Luna for two years. She brought the issue of old-growth logging our dinner tables & showed beyond a doubt, one person can make a difference.
And like a cheap cliffhanger, a penny dreadful, we wait on the edge of our seats, to see what internet tricks & treats are in store for tomorrows Halloween.
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